Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic will be squaring off for the 46th time in their careers when they battle for the Western & Southern Open title on Sunday afternoon.
It could be all tied up 23-23 in the head-to-head series following the final, but Federer has some work to do if he wants that to happen. Although the 37-year-old Swiss trails Djokovic 23-22, he is a perfect 3-0 against the Serb in Cincinnati finals. Federer triumphed 6-1, 7-5 in 2009, 6-0, 7-6(7) in 2012, and 7-6(1), 6-3 in 2015. The latter result came at the peak of their rivalry, as the two all-time greats faced each other an incredible eight times that season. Djokovic is 6-2 in their last eight meetings after winning their most recent showdown 6-1, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the semis of the 2016 Australian Open.
Djokovic’s 0-3 mark against Federer in Cincinnati is part of a shocking 0-5 lifetime record in finals at this tournament. It is the only Masters 1000 event he has never won, but a resurgent former world No. 1 has once again given himself a chance. Djokovic’s comeback from 2017 was once slow-going, but he captured a fourth Wimbledon title and has bounced back from a Toronto loss to Stefanos Tsitsipas with victories this week over Steve Johnson, Adrian Mannarino, Grigor Dimitrov, Milos Raonic, and Marin Cilic. The 10th seed has won each of his last four matches in three sets.
Federer’s workload was extensive on Friday, when he played twice in the span of about eight hours and picked up wins at the expense of Leonardo Mayer and Stan Wawrinka. The world No. 2 preceded those results by beating Peter Gojowyczk and he followed them up with a second-set retirement from David Goffin on Saturday night (Federer took the opener in a tiebreaker).
Federer is now 46-8 lifetime in Cincinnati and one win away from an eighth tile.
“It [is] the greatest challenge in Cincinnati, without a doubt–especially here–because he’s been dominating this tournament historically,” Djokovic said of a final against one of his biggest rivals. “He won against me several times in finals. Obviously he feels great in these conditions and this surface.”
Pick: Federer in 2
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The good thing about the result of the match is that websites are not getting flooded with worshipping Fed. 🙂
“The good thing about the result of the match is that websites are not getting flooded with worshipping Fed”
they should worship wafa instead who btw spent some serenity time recharging at the fuentes clinic, working on his 150 m/h us open serve.
grassgoat AT 2:59 AM,
Fed devotee, “the fuentes clinic” is one of a zillion fake stories created & being kept alive by Fed devotees’ propaganda apparatus for years.
But it’s a fact that Fed’s parents have worked for a pharmaceutical company.
Easy Augusta; Nobody has anything with you or against you. You do realize that if Fed won,then all Fed fans here including me would behave like normal people do? It’s not like Fed would’ve won his 1st match in 2 years. If you don’t like someone’s reaction when he wins, why don’t you confront that person directly, personally on youtube or other site he uses to posts. Why doing this here where both Rafa and Fed fans are more than decent. Well, most…I hope you think about that. They don’t deserve to be energized even more. Let them be.
Eugene says AT 9:47 AM: “Easy Augusta; Nobody has anything with you or against you.”
===
Hmm. I didn’t write anything about myself.
Eugene says AT 9:47 AM: “…why don’t you confront that person directly…”
===
Hmm. I always write the addressee’s name at the beginning of my post.
I know lots of people who work for pharmaceutical companies,it doesn’t mean they do drugs.
And for the record,Im a Nole fan so happy to see him back to his best,while I’m sad for Fed.
Btw, why is it called Career Golden Masters, when I don’t see him having any gold medal? It should just be called Career Masters, just like calling those who hold all four slams having the Career Slams. I thought Golden is used when that player has also won an Olympics Gold medal?
should be called Masters 1000 Slam
Golden has nothing to do with it
“Fed devotee, “the fuentes clinic” is one of a zillion fake stories created & being kept alive by Fed devotees’ propaganda apparatus for years.”
Operation “Puerto”. Judge Julia Patricia Santamaria begs to differ. Pure facts and zero fake liberal news.
Goat of BS no?
Strange how when jim disappeared within minutes grassrubbish was on the scene…😉
amy,
That is a very interesting observation!
grassgoat AT 2:20 PM
Your post AT 2:59 AM is a false story.
Everything grassgoat writes is a false story. He wouldn’t know the truth if it stood up and hit him in the face! He is just here to make trouble. He can’t handle the fact that Fed lost again. Too bad.
dumbgrassgoat,
You just gave yourself away with the fake news bit and the dig at liberals. Trust me, you do not want to get into it with me because I wipe the floor with you.
You are too stupid to even know how stupid you are.
“Your post AT 2:59 AM is a false story.”
sorry i don’t watch CNN.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operaci%C3%B3n_Puerto_doping_case
… “Media attention has focused on the small number of professional road cyclists named; however, sportspeople from other disciplines including football and tennis have also been connected with the scandal.” …
hard facts, so hard.
grassgoat 3:03 PM
What does your reply have to to with the FALSE story you posted AT 2:59 AM ?! 🙄
Remember who you are dealing with. He is using Trump’s code words because he is too stupid to think for himself. He is just here to post conspiracy theories and other imaginary thoughts. He’s a troll, pure and simple.
assgoat is a trump fan?
White male either low IQ, religious “right” or feeling threatened by equality.
Probably all of the above.
Yes, I go for all of the above!
😀
Sportsmanship of the Year Award…(How did Roddick never win this?)
https://www.express.co.uk/videos/551430/Cincinnati-Masters-Federer-FUMES-at-umpire-s-missed-line-call
hawk, I agree that Fed should have won less Sportmanship Awards. But not because he sometimes was mad at the empire. It would be pretty superficial to offer that Award only to quiet, passive players or ‘nice guys’. Arguing and being assertive is part of the game. Sometimes it energizes and motivates you inside and it has different causes and effects compared to what appears at the first glance.
I just think that other players deserved that award too. Giving it to Fed too many time was a bit too much. BUT, again, it’s not his fault. As far as I know, players vote for it. I’m sure he’s have handed to someone else.
Yes and Hillary won the popular vote as did Al Gore but look how that turned out. Fake WMD claims in IRAQ and thousands of children separated from their parents and emboldened racism in the US being all the rage again. But I digress.
Arguing and being disrespectful telling the umpire to apologize to him are two different things.
I would argue that Djokovic shows better sportsmanship than Federer, telling his opponents to challenge calls and being very friendly and congratulatory to his opponents when he loses. Federer’s handshake was pretty cold on Sunday.
I guess that speaks more about human beings as group mentality, than about Hillary or Fed. Not that you implied something else. But it’s fair to emphasize that as a summary.
I implied that votes are not always as they tseem. That’s all.
No prob. What’s ‘tsame’? is it cooler? has to do with Tsitsi??
tsomething like that
More to the point, Tsonga is out BTW.
(Tsad.)
Hawks and vr!! I believe it is vr’s birthday today and hawks’s tomorrow! Vr hope you have a great day today Just in case you still read here! You are very much missed by all.
Hawks I hope you have a great day tomorrow!
Happy birthday to both of you!
🎂🎂🎂
I left this here rather on non tennis forum as it is more likely you see it here!
Hey thank you Amy! happy b-day to vr wherever he be.
Is it tomorrow hawks? I calculated it as tomorrow because on the Sunday cincy ended in 2015 you said it was your birthday so I added 3 days on. Vr said it was his birthday on that Sunday as well but then last year it turned out you had birthdays on different days one before the other ! I think his is today!
Yup. Pretty sure about vr too!